happy holidays.

shadow puppets by Owly Shadow Puppets

hello, it's almost end of the year.
hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.

lots of things happend for me this year, and glad its over!

im thinking about doing wholesale next year.
it has been 3 years since i started PataPri, and had many offer for wholesale from many great shops all over the world, but i wasnt really sure how to go about it and dealing with etsy shop was hard enough for me, so i haven't done it.
ive been reading craft inc. and started to think about doing wholesale seriously.
lots to think...
i have a big passion for my patapri, and love making things i make, but im not really a business person, so thats what i need to figure it out next year.

one of the reason i want to do wholesale is that when i went to paris in summer, when i was walking around the neighborhood of Marais with my sister, i stooped by a cute little toy store.
i saw a shadow puppet by fellow chicago crafter andrea on their window display!
i was so excited to see her work at different country, far away from chicago.
and i thought, that would be amazing to see my towels in cute shops all over the world, that would be so cool!
that's the reason why i want to do wholesale, good reason right?

anyway, thats my goal for next year to do wholesale.
and go back to chicago and do renegade.

have a happy holidays!
yuko

towels.

more towels at etsy. im in printing mode.
i can print only 6 towels at times due to my table size ( 12 for a small size towel ), so i print first color , wait to dry, second color, wait to dry and logo.
it takes long hours to just print 6 towels... but oh well.

i have a new package for my hand towels.
im using paper instead of hemp strings which i use for kitchen towel.
paper looks great for small size towel, but for large size towel, paper looked not right, especially side part, so i fold the paper to make it like a box? and i really like the way it look. yay.

more new stuff.

i've been enjoying printing last few weeks. i just listed many more new stuff. i like these new aprons.

take a look!
PataPri

happy holidays!

PataPri hand towels.

since i decided to print here (japan), i was looking and researching new fabrics to print on besides linen.

i found the japanese hand towels which has 2 sides, front side is soft gauze fabrics, and back side is short length loop.
i used it and really liked it, so soft , dry quickly, and very light.

so here are my new hand towels.
9 new desing are available at my etsy shop.

i hope you like them as much as i do!

my inks are here!

finally, my inks arrived this week.
i've been printing ever sine, so much fun!
i realized how much i like doing this.

my new studio is working great, best part is the view.
its nice to be at studio.

new stuff will be on etsy this weekend, hope you check them out :).

orikeshi

hello,
im still waiting for my inks to arrive.... it has been a month! please, USPS, please!

anyway, i found a craft toy called "orikeshi" it means original eraser in japanese.
it looks fun even though it is a toy for girls, so i bought it.
last night , i was having a fun making erasers!
it comes with small sticks of eraser, and design cards and holding stand to create your own eraser.
i didnt like the designs that came with, so i made a few designs on illustrator.
after you place those sticks of eraser, you microwave them for 60seconds.
and you have a eraser. it erase good too!

new business cards.

i just received my new business cards in mail!
i've been waiting for it and i'm so happy with the result.
while i was researching and thinking about my new business card, i found the paper called "pachica".
i really liked this paper so i decided to use this one for my cards.
amazing things about this paper is that when it hot pressed it become transparent.
so i designed with my favorite shapes and blue and orange parts are foil stamped.
cant wait to give out to people. :)

@ grandma's

hi,
it's been a month, since i moved to my grandma's house.
i was supposed to be in chicago, so i was kind of bummed to still be in japan, but now im kind of glad that i can spend time here. so relaxing!
i have a many wonderful memory here as i visited every summer and winter when i was a kid.
i will be here until next spring, so i want to enjoy as much i can before i move to chicago for good.
here are snaps of the house. toys my brothers, sister, and i used, old furniture, my grandmas handmade japanese dolls, view from the house, etc...

my project of making a little printing studio is going well.
i set up the dark room at closet!
things i need is almost all delivered. i order inks from usa, but delivery cost me same as inks.... but i wanted to use inks that im used to. ( pro chemical )
i was away from japan such a long time, so i dont really know where to get screen print products here, i googled but dont know which one is good!
im waiting my printing table (dining table) now.
i will put some pictures when i finish set up my new studio and tell you my new portable screen making machine.
lots of new stuff & design will be available soon!

and, thank you for your kind words for patapri's re-opening. :)
it really means a lot to me.

PataPri is back.

hello, i just re-open PataPri shop on etsy.
new design house i printed in summer is available now.
please take a look!
i changed the package. what do you think?
i will soon start printing in new studio in japan, and im thinking about printing on new material besides linen.
im also working on my new bushiness card. i found the really cool paper, so im having a fun time designing using that special paper. i will talk about it more later.

thank you for all the kind email and messages while im gone.
im so happy to finally re-open patapri.

hello

my recent purchase hedgehog moss bonsai @ j.period

hello,
i can't believe its already october...
i'm back in japan, and i will be here next few months.
i had a most amazing time in europe and now i'm setting up temporary studio at my grandma's house. since my grandma passed, nobody lives here, so while i'm in japan, i decided to live here which i have many wonderful memory of my childhood.
it's a pretty big house for one person, but since it has lots of space, i can print! so now i'm getting a new screen making machine and stuff.
while i make a new stuff, i will re-open PataPri shop on etsy to start sell towels i printed in summer in chicago.
hope to see you at my etsy shop next week!

Bonjour!

this is my sister's apartment, she lives on tiny apt on top floor.

since i cant bring my cat niko, i made a niko embroidery to travel with me.

new design "house"
my towel looking good by the window of where im staying.

hello!
ive safely arrived at paris last night.
weather is great and im enjoying to see my sister and paris.

summer!

i bought a catcam.
my cat niko goes outside, and i was curious where she goes.
she took some nice pics.

hello!
hows your summer going?
i spend time at studio last week and print some towels finally. i had a great time back in studio.
i printed a new design call "houses" too. i will show you soon.

another thing is im going to europe!! i will spend 5 weeks in paris and another country.
im so excited, even though my sister lives in paris for last 10 years, ive never visited her. so this is my first time to go to europe and i just can't wait. there are many places i want to visit!
im renting an apartment. yay!
i will blog while im there.
see you soon!

japanese masking tapes.

while i was in japan, i saw these colorful masking tapes, and i loved them.
so i had to get them all color! so pretty!
they are made with washi(japanese paper), very thin paper tape.
i found out that you can get these tapes in here and some of etsy shop. ( here and here )

and i wanted have tape dispenser just for these tapes.
where to look? etsy! i found a great wood shop "Banished wood working" , scott who makes cool wood toys custom made these tape dispensers for me!
i just received these tape dispensers yesterday and i'm very happy with it.
if you need one of these you should convo him! i asked him longer length but he will custom make any size for very reasonable price.
this is what i like about etsy, all the talented people from all over the world.

anyway, i just wanted to show off my new tape dispenser and tapes. haha

the visitor.

"thanks for the food!"

"yum yum"

"this is my home!"

hello,
it has been great weather in chicago.
the other day i was open my window and doors to get fresh air. while my cat niko was out enjoying outside, other cat visit my place and ate niko's food!
she was walking around my apt, checking bathroom and everything.
there are 4-5 cats living backyard of my apt, but niko doesnt really like to socialize them so it was good niko wasnt home.

hello from tokyo!

chidorigafuchi by emperor's house

kamakura (鎌倉）

view from my grandma's at hayama

tokyo tower

hello,
im back in tokyo again. im so happy to be here this time of the year. it's a cherry blossom season in japan. they are so beautiful and only last for a week or 2, so i feel lucky!
i went to a few famous cherry blossom places, meguro-kawa（目黒川）, kamakura（鎌倉）, and chidoriga fuchi（千鳥ヶ淵 ）. weather was perfect and it was amazing view.
i dont usually go back to japan so often, and since im away from japan for 15 years, i appreciate many little things about japan which i didnt even notice when i used to live here.
things i love about japan.
1. people are so polite and i believe japanese customer service is the best in the world! at bank, grocery store, post office, everywhere i go, they treat you like you're the queen.
2. trains and buses are so clean and don't smell like cta. drivers are also very polite and nice.
3. convenience store. i will miss japanese seven eleven, ampm, and ローソン。they carry many teas which i love.
i appreciate these little things.

im going back to chicago next week. i cant wait to finally get back to print!

im back!

set of soy sauce bottle, tooth picks and spice container from J-period.

konpeitou (金平糖 suger）from QUOLOFUNE (黒船）. their dorayaki is pretty good.

pear shaped lip balm and hand cream. i had to get these! i got them from drug store.

a little linen tray from cibone. i bought this to put set of 3 containers. i like this store. they have many things that i want! from furniture to note book.

a fish shaped big spoon for rice. i can scoop many rice at once haha. from outlet.

cute birds cloth pins from j.[posh].

a big chopstick for cooking from outlet.

hello,
im back in chicago!
it is good to be back and im taking a much needed break.
here are some stuff i bought from japan.
i didnt have much time to shopping while i was there, but my hometown jiyuugaoka(自由が丘） is known to have many zakkaya san (雑貨) so one afternoon i walked around neighborhood and got some little cute stuff.

im going back to studio this weekend.
i havnt print for a while so im excited to go back to print. im making little bags and stuff for my nephews.
i will post again when i finish making them. :)